On Halloween, I went with A's kindergarten class on a field trip to Minter's Farm, where we went to Inman Farm Heritage Days back in September (see "Down on the farm" - 17 September). It was a beautiful fall day and all five kindergarten classes from the elementary school were very excited to be out of the classroom.
There were five parents total from A's class, so with the teacher and the para professional, we had seven adults for the 16 students in Mrs. G's class. All in all, they were fairly well-behaved; they were just energetic and keeping them in line was akin to herding cats. Giggling, talking, squirming cats.
We went inside a log cabin , known as Miss Quinnie's cabin, which is an original 1870s log home. Mr. Minter told the students how two sisters lived in that tiny cabin (maybe 12' x 12' total?) their entire lives, cooked their meals using the fireplace and had no indoor plumbing or electricity. Then the children made a simple corn husk doll, picked cotton, ground corn with a hand-cranked grist mill to feed the chickens, cows and donkeys, went on a hayride, picked out a small pumpkin to take home, and helped to make, as a class, a hand-twisted rope to take back to the classroom. Then we unpacked our bag lunches and ate outdoors. One of the moms had made Halloween cupcakes, which we enjoyed.
Once all five classes had finished all the activities, they loaded back onto the buses and drove back to school. I drove home and put up my feet when I got in the house! It was great fun, but four hours of farm fun with five and six year olds had me a bit tired, but also appreciating my indoor plumbing and electricity.
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